Kaoboi Bebobp

I was there Tuesday (yesterday) mid-afternoon just for a photo. Easily 70-80 people at all the counters etc. Looked very busy.

I'm Canadian and got the KBank email last mid-evening. Bit of a Saturday night shocker. Anyway, will be off to KBank on Monday to see what  this is all about, though it is clearly very focused on American tax laws. My account goes back to about 2008, I think. 

Regarding your No. 3, Bangkok Hospital. This was 10 years ago but I see Dr. Sakpisid Nawasiri is still listed at the cancer department. He treated me for prostate cancer via Image Modulated Radiotherapy. 35 treatments, 5 days a week for 7 weeks. Well, needless to say, I was impressed with all the staff and doctor during treatment and I am still here and healthy. At least worth consulting him.

20 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I also hear they left behind the massive amount of unfinished buildings and construction in places like Sihanoukville, when their local economy collapsed back home in China and gbling laws changed in Cambodia. Is there a lesson to be learned here? They left behind a horrendous blight. They create alot of problems with their insatiable greed. 

 

Tens of thousands of Chinese citizens who moved to Cambodia to work in the gambling and hospitality industry have left the coastal city, leaving the economy in limbo and hundreds of high-rises unfinished across the city.

 

In July, provincial authorities met with representatives of local investors and landlords who have leased to Chinese investment projects to discuss the crisis.

 

According to Sihanoukville provincial authority, more than 1,000 buildings in Sihanoukville have been abandoned for more than two years.

 

https://cambojanews.com/sihanoukville-property-owners-in-limbo-as-unfinished-high-rises-litter-the-city/

 

If you want perspective on the thorough devastation of Sihanoukville, watch this fresh video by an Aussie couple, who have lived in Cambodia for years and live in Siem Reap currently but visited S'ville recently.

Roads and streets are full of potholes and broken asphalt. Blocks of Chinese-only businesses and eateries only have signs in Chinese, none in Khmer or English. Dozens of building skeletons are festooned with horrible shacks for the poor Khmer and marginal businesses. Polluted water flows down hilly streets. It is pretty disgusting what has happened to this former chill, quiet but yet enjoyable seaside small city. 

This is not one of their better presentations but the visuals are soul wrenching:

First impressions of SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia! Shocking? Dangerous?

1 hour ago, Will B Good said:

Talking to a lady last night who owns a bar and massage parlour not far from Patong beach.

 

Her words....'Lots of people walking about, plenty of Chinese and Russians, but business is bad. We need US and EU tourists, they are the big spenders.'

Just heard a similar story from a small bar owner behind Big C Extra on Pattaya Klang. Known her for years. Her non-hostess bar was empty most nights  for the week I visited while Russians, Koreans and Chinese walked past with Big C and 7-11 bags in hand. She said she is waiting for her Scandinavian customers' return in September. She does get the odd Euro/Aussie/Yank customers who have lived in the neighbourhood a long time, as I used to do. But westerner business on average is way down.

Good thread. Anyway, back to the visa question . . .

Back in late February, VN talked about waiving visas for up to 6- and 12-month stays. Too good to be true, I know. I scan the Viet English press every day and not a peep since.  However, there may be an update soon. The National Assembly will be addressing tourism issues June 4-6, as reported a week ago at Vietnam Plus news site. This below is all that was said:

Quote

The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism is scheduled to be questioned about the recruitment, training and policies for athletes and artists; the generation of jobs for them after they reach the peak in their career; the implementation of tasks and solutions to stimulate demand and restore tourism in 2024 and the following years; measures to develop night tourism products; and specific policies to attract investment in cultural, sports and tourism activities in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. 

Vietnam is getting crushed by other tourist hotspots in SEA. I hope they will have something concrete to offer this year. I also find this issue of residency with Thai taxation consequences somewhat worrisome. And frankly, as noted above, I find living in increasingly busy Bangkok (4.5 years straight) or anywhere in Thailand is getting on my nerves. I have lived in Cambodia many years ago and Vietnam up until 2019. 

The best VN visa right now is the 90-day MULTI-entry useful but not satisfactory for longer stays. However, there have been some fresh expat reports of the e-visa portal being unable to process payments and no amount of emails via the specific trouble report link were being answered for days on end. 

A decently dressed Indian guy came down the escalator at Phrom Phong BTS Station in front of Em Quartier Mall, Bangkok. Asked if I speak English. He pressed his internal start button and went straight into his pitch, showing me his -- not sure if it's called a colostomy bag if it's used to collect urine. Yeah, yuck. Drama button 2 gets pressed and the tears started to flow. Then and there I knew the game was on. "No. Bye." The nerve these bums have. I have also gotten the "you have a lucky face" pitch in years past.

18 minutes ago, BananaBandit said:

 

Thank you for telling me this. 

 

Are there any good Vietnam visa agents in Laos?

Sorry, haven't been to Lao in many years.

11 hours ago, BananaBandit said:

Can you extend a tourist visa while inside Vietnam?

 

If so, then where do you go?   Is there, by chance, a good visa agent in the Da Nang region?

Nope. Whether you entered on a 30-day single entry or 90-day multi-entry visa, you must leave. During the previous 30-day-only visa period, agents were offering one-day border runs to Cambodia for about 1 million VND or more.

As for an agent-obtained visa within the country, do so at your own risk. 

Posted in the last 24 hours on Voice of Vietnam and on VN Express. 

Is Vietnam waking up to the nearby tourism competition? These are good looking proposals. Now, if VN would only get going and stop talking.

The remainders of the articles at the links are largely background stuff. 

From Voice of Vietnam:

Vietnam to offer long-stay visas to attract visitors from high-end markets

Quote

VOV.VN - Vietnam will pilot long-term, multiple-entry visas lasting from 12 to 36 months to attract visitors from high-end markets such as Europe, Northeast Asia, North America, India and the Middle East.

 

It will expand the list of countries whose citizens can enjoy unilateral visa exemption, and pilot visa exemption for short-term periods from 6 to 12 months for visitors from a number of large, high-spending markets.

These are part of a Prime Minister directive on comprehensive, fast and sustainable tourism development which was promulgated recently.

The PM assigned the Ministry of Public Security in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant agencies to study and propose those preferential policies.

From VN Express:

Vietnam considers visa exemption for nationals of wealthy countries

Quote

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has instructed immigration agencies to consider waiving visas for visits of six to 12 months for people coming from wealthy countries to drive tourism recovery.

The list of countries whose citizens are unilaterally exempted from visas would be expanded from the current 13, he said in a directive Friday.

The list now has Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus.

The PM also instructed the agencies to consider issuing long-term and multiple-entry visas from 12 to 36 months to attract wealthy foreign retirees from Europe, Northeast Asia, North America, India, and some Middle Eastern countries.

13 minutes ago, xylophone said:

 

The same "doctor" as this one.............

 

John Lorimer Campbell is an English YouTuber and retired nurse educator known for his videos about the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the videos received praise, but they later veered into misinformation. 

 

All the same, I wish you well with your health situation.

I will only reply to this once because it is way off topic. Campbell has presented hundreds of studies all these years, with all the sources and links. Read the medical study summarized and linked by Campbell, which is my only reason for posting this so that it might help folks. 

This might be helpful. I was treated for prostate cancer (Gleason of 7) back in 2014 (age 60) by Dr. Sakpisid Nawasiri at Bangkok Hospital. They used Image Modulated Radio Therapy (IMRT). The machine was a Swedish Electa, which circled my body through 7 different positions. There were a total of 35 fractions (treatments): 25 aimed at surrounding tissue such as lymph nodes and 10 at the prostate. In other words, 7 weeks. 

For the next 2 years, I had quarterly physical checks and blood tests. My lowest PSA was 0.6, and averaged in the 1.xx for years. During that period I utterly changed my lifestyle so to give my immune system a better chance. I still do so to this very day, getting good sleep and some light exercise and keep my metabolic health up-to-date.

FYI: Last year, Dr. John Campbell, PhD, posted this study on his channel (3 million subscribers): "Circulating vitamin D level and mortality in prostate cancer patients: a dose–response meta-analysis." In summary, higher dosages of Vit D seem to have a very positive protective effect on those who already had prostate cancer. You can read his entire script below his YouTube video and/or watch the 16 min vid. 

Vitamin D and prostate cancer

37 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

could be unless you have a delay, and you would be late.  Also, getting the permit AFTER immigration makes me a bit apprehensive .

Not quite sure what you mean by "after" immigration. After airline check-in, you go upstairs to Security, then downstairs to Passport Control. Here you do not get in line for the IOs but go straight to the corner desk to buy your Re-entry Permit (single or multi), then get in line to get your departure stamp. This is at Suvarnabhumi.

1 hour ago, PoorSucker said:

It's better now, The Thai bars have been told to keep the music low now.

My balcony is facing soi3 so I had probably more noise than Euro.

I'm very high up so not sheltered from the noice.

I've lived in Thailand for 17 years so I'm used to it.

Now it's so quiet I can't sleep ????

Thanks very much for the reply. It just hit me that this is a 6-month-old thread. I asked a similar question on a recent fresh thread. Must get more sleep! LOL

On 6/18/2023 at 9:50 PM, PoorSucker said:

I live on Sai3 , north of the Klang.

All the Thai bars here have also turned down the Volume 

That's good to know. I moved into Centrepoint Condo (behind Big C Extra on Klang) before the pandemic and lasted 2 weeks . A real shame. My unit was on the side facing away from the 3rd Rd noise makers yet pounding music reverberated off other condos (I'm guessing) and woke me up many times, even during a ferocious rain storm. I'd think about moving back if the Thai clubs have really turned the music down. So is it really much better now? Thanks.

I wonder what the number of homicides are this year so far, compared to previous years. Seems like there are a lot more than I remember, based on the number of stories we see here and in the local press. Lots of gun violence, many stabbings and now poisonings.

I think the government, such as it is, has a lot of work to do to reverse the tide. It seems especially easy to obtain guns via social media ads and probably even easier via the usual criminal networks.

A girl I know was the side victim of a shooting murder up country. Miraculously, despite being shot in the face, she survived after much surgery and recovery. 

Did a little research regarding how come Russian pig meat ends up in foreign markets, particularly in Cambodia. Turns out Russia exports thousands of tonnes of pig meat to Vietnam as the country's hog farms have suffered from several years of the deadly African swine fever. 

I guess starving Putinian troops don't get first dibs.

Or maybe a recent shipment got purloined by a Cambodian.